Droplet Wetting Propagation on a Hybrid-Wettability Surface

Abstract

Droplet impinging on the boundary between hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions of a hybrid-wettability surface is studied both experimentally and numerically in the present paper. The interfacial evolution and dynamic feature and the corresponding underlying mechanisms behind are mainly analyzed. Because of the unbalanced surface energy in the vicinity of a boundary, the droplet undergoes spreading−receding in the hydrophobic region before migration toward the hydrophilic region. This results in an increase first but then a decrease in the spreading factor in the hydrophobic region, while it increases continuously in the hydrophilic region. In addition, increasing Weber number leads to the increase in both the spreading factor and migration displacement of the droplet in the hydrophobic region, but the latter decreases in the hydrophilic region, resulting from different momentums of secondary spreading. The experimental determinations are verified in detail by a series of numerical simulations performed based on the single variable method by fixing contact angles in different regions separately and excluding the impact momentum. It is shown that the highly unsymmetrical pressure field is exactly one important reason for droplet migration on the hybrid-wettability surface. Despite the weak dependence of the spreading factor on the hydrophilic contact angle in the hydrophobic region, it has an appreciably positive effect on droplet migration, which is confirmed by the increased pressure gradient with its action area in the hydrophobic region when decreasing the hydrophilic contact angle. This paper advances the fundamental understanding for droplet migration on the hybrid-/gradient-wettability surface.

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